The issue
The client, the national distributor of a global vehicle manufacturer based in Asia, wanted to establish more expansive quantitative guidelines with respect to the people aspects of their distribution network. The goal was to develop a three-year HR plan that would take into account skills, competencies, capabilities and performance standards, and best practices. The driving force behind this initiative was a global sales mandate that called for substantial growth in current volume while limiting further investment in physical infrastructure.
Action plans aimed at closing gaps between lagging dealerships and leading dealerships. The client also needed to determine the number of staff necessary to achieve sales and service targets, and determine the combination of skills, training, and experience required to drive the action plans forward.
Our approach
HR performance across dealerships was evaluated taking into account: management roles and responsibilities, recruiting, hiring, goal setting, training, education, career planning and employee retention. A Dealership Capabilities Model (DCM) ™ was designed to assess eight different management positions in each dealership from dealer principal to sales and service technicians. This process utilized role-specific questions that mapped to key evaluation areas. All assessments were completed online and sufficient data was collected to develop long-term recommendations.
The outcome
The results of the DCM assessment were presented in a workshop format with both company management and dealers. The outcome of this PricewaterhouseCoopers-facilitated workshop was a tactical plan to focus on specific areas of the HR process, including recruiting, selection, hiring, training and evaluation. PricewaterhouseCoopers was engaged to prepare and facilitate this plan. As a result of these efforts, sales growth and productivity objectives have been met while employee turnover in the channel has been reduced.
